Doctor Whooves- The Defeat

Chapter 2: Trapped

“Are you saying that the Daleks are responsible for capturing the two most important ponies in Equestria?!” Shouted Twilight.

“Unless the Time Lords are returning, the chances are high that they abducted Luna and Celestia and put them in this prison. I don’t know how they’ve recovered this maze, but what I do know is the threat could be extremely dangerous either way.” The Doctor thought for a moment, and looked around the room.

“Weren’t there 3 doors before I heard that noise? They couldn’t have figured out the controls that fast! Whoever we’re facing, whether it is Daleks or Time Lords, someone or rather something is guiding them and until I figure that out, we’re all just mice in a maze trying to find the cheese at the end.” He thought to himself. “It looks like that tremor we felt was the maze coming online, and the first change of routes was to this room. It looks like the only way now is forward.”

With that, they ventured down the only path presented to them. As the ponies were moving forward, they all began to feel an emotion arise and become stronger with every step. Each emotion was different for the ponies. For The Doctor, the emotion was Fear; Derpy’s was Anger, and Twilight’s was Curiosity.

The Doctor caught on to this. “I’m sure you two have noticed as well.”

“Noticed what?” Twilight replied.

“Our emotions have been tampered with. Each emotion you feel that is stronger than the others are designed to slow us down and have us quarrel with one another. Twilight, can you think of any spell to counteract with this?” The Doctor said.

“Actually, I might. During Queen Chrysalis’ invasion, Cadence used a love spell. If I could only find the original spell, I might be able to adapt it to counteract our imbalanced emotions. The problem is, only Celestia, Luna, and Cadence know the spell and one of them is being tortured, and the other two are probably still at home! Oh, Celestia! I have no idea what to do!!”

The Doctor saw something that slightly startled him. “Twilight, you might have a chance to get that spell. Look!”

He pointed to the end of the hallway, and to all three as a surprise was Princess Luna, but something seemed different.

“LUNA! Thank Celestia, you’re okay!” Twilight said as she ran to her ruler and friend. Suddenly, a dark blue wisp of magic was shot toward the sprinting Princess and was followed by a scream of pain.

“INSOLENT FOOL! Luna is no more! For I am Nightmare Moon! MUHUHUAHAHA!”

In a flash, The Doctor stood in between the injured Twilight and Nightmare Moon. With a quick flick of his Sonic Screwdriver, he shot a Paralyzing Sound-wave towards the malicious alicorn, stunning her temporarily. “Twilight, I need you to use that memory spell for your friends on Luna! It’s the only way to bring her back at this point!”

With a pain, she nodded and began to cast the spell. At the same time, The Doctor increased the frequency on his Sonic to Incapacitate Nightmare Moon’s horn and muscle functions.

“Now!” The Doctor called out and Twilight released the spell to Luna, making her remember the memories of the past few months, knocking her out after it was done.

When she regained consciousness, Luna remembered what happened. “Doctor, This was a trap to lure you here!”

“Yes I know, Luna. My suspicions arose when nopony came to escort me. Last time, your sister had me escorted by her royal guard, remember?” The Doctor said.

“Now that you recall it, I do remember. It was around the time we first met, and you were mesmerized by how I could raise the moon, just like how my older sister could raise the sun. Is that why we’re here, Doctor? Is it because of our abilities to raise and lower celestial bodies?”

“I’m afraid so, Luna. This place we’re in, it’s full of Time Lord Devices and Technology. Any number of them can be used to harness your power. With yours and your sister’s combined, it would rival the powers of a god.”

The Doctor looked around for a moment for any disguised listening devices. After he found a few, he used his Sonic Screwdriver to turn them off temporarily. “Listen, and listen carefully: whoever set this trap is incredibly intelligent. Only a small portion of the galaxy knows of my race. Even fewer know where to get their hands on a Time Maze. Your discovery, Luna, was planned. When the engines started, neither Twilight nor Derpy could hear them because it was meant to be heard only to me. You two were meant to be left clueless. After the ceiling collapsed and you revealed the maze, Twilight, upon instinct I looked around for any exits. If they wanted to kill us, why not seal off escape routes by removing the doors? No, this was planned very carefully. They wanted me to find Luna. They needed me to get cut off from the TARDIS. What this means is that whatever is at the end of this twisted path, will either try to kill us, or whoever it is will try to get us to help them.” The hidden microphone turned back on and prevented The Doctor from explaining further.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, it appears the way back to the TARDIS is blocked…” He said with an extremely exaggerated voice. The other 3 ponies became confused, so The Doctor nudged them with a worried look on his face. As soon as they noticed what he was doing, they understood and played along.

After a few minutes of walking through the Time Lord maze, the 4 ponies came across something that blocked their path…
“Doctor, what is that thing?” questioned Twilight Sparkle. What stood before them was a massive wall, which was brimming with magical energy. The Doctor was about to scan it with his Screwdriver when Luna stopped him. “Don’t do that, Doctor. You’ll only make it stronger.” She said.

“And might I ask why?” he replied.

“If you value your life, you will listen to me. This wall is known as a Gate of Tartarus, or at least a prototype.” Twilight’s jaw nearly dropped when she heard this.

“You mean to tell me that THIS is just a prototype?! It’s huge! The actual one has to be at least twice the size!”

Luna nodded. “Yes, Twilight, the actual one is much bigger, but it matters not right now. Back when Celestia and I were ruling for the first time, we devised a plan to store all of the threatening beasts that are known as myths and legends nowadays. At first, we thought putting them on either the sun or moon would be enough, but after a while, some of the more magically potent ones teleported back to the planet and again started to wreak havoc. Error after error we tried numerous ideas that expended the royal treasury multiple times, putting the nation in several periods of economic collapse and poverty. Then, a very powerful wizard came and offered a new solution. You have encountered his ancestor, Twilight. The one you call Trixie, I believe.” She explained.

Twilight was suddenly filled with envy towards Trixie. “So that’s why she calls herself ‘great and powerful’?” Twilight frustratingly said.

“Yes. He often talked about his great granddaughter with a sort of pride for her. It only made sense that she called herself those things because of her heritage. After all, her great grandfather was responsible for the design of the Gate of Tartarus. But moving on from the subject, he devised a plan for powerful wizards and mages to work together with esteemed scientists. With the geographical knowledge of volcanoes and the expertise of magical barriers, the two professions unlikely paired up and began construction of prototypes for this ‘Pit of Tartarus’.”

She continued. “After a few attempts, they successfully created one. What happened to the prototypes was unknown, until now.”

“Wait a minute, how do you just lose a door this size?!” Exclaimed The Doctor.

“We don’t know! Back then, we were a very unorganized princess and as such we just lost track of things!” Luna replied frustratingly.

“In that case, we’ll just have to find a way to tear it down.” The Doctor said.

“That’s the thing,” Luna started, “the more you try to destroy it, the stronger it gets. Even the slightest scratch will trigger its defensive mode. The earliest of prototypes, such as this one also had a major defect: its magical barrier wasn’t properly executed, so in combination with its defensive capabilities, the barrier sapped any spell caster of their energy if they so much as tried to mess with the barrier, resulting in the death of the caster. That’s why I stopped you from using your Sonic. That same barrier doesn’t know the difference between technology and magic. It probably thinks your Screwdriver is nothing more than a fancy looking wand.”

The Doctor thought for a moment. “So there were two paths we could’ve had: we could have gone back to the TARDIS and gather any resources we could before we even ventured this deep, and the one where we just started breaking down a new path for us to cross while the walls were still thin and weak. Looking at our options now, it seems there is only one left, and they won’t like what I am about to do…”